When employees are disengaged it costs you, whether in turnover over lack of productivity. Better feedback is proven to help both retention & engagement, shaping the culture and impacting the bottom line of the business. You likely know this.
But what sets apart those who are great at providing feedback? And how do you then train others to change their behaviors and improve at giving and receiving feedback?
Great feedback providers have a network of behaviors and skills operating together—skills like active listening, clear communication, timeliness & consistency, and emotional intelligence (EI). We'll focus on active listening here, unpacking what it is and, most importantly, how you can effectively train and develop skills like these in your team through learning activities over time.
Why does time make the difference?
It turns out the "over time" part is crucial. New skills need to be intentionally practiced for at least 10 weeks to truly form new habits. This is true whether it's skills at work or in your personal life. Behavior change is hard, and we humans are not always good at it. But there's evidence that with intentional effort over a period of time (about three months, as it turns out) we can change our new skills into daily habits.
Active listening is a feedback skill that can be taught, practiced, and made into a habit over time.
You may not find this surprising, since it aligns with the 70-20-10 learning principle (70% on the job, 20% through coaching, 10% through formal training). Formal learning is typically a one-and-done approach. No doubt the classroom-style approach is a foundational part of learning— but it's just not enough. Formal training must be supplemented with ongoing training that allows for learning on the job, in the 70%.
Active listening: The cornerstone of great feedback
Active listening can have a big impact on your business by driving better engagement.
- Most employees don't feel heard: only 28% strongly agree that their opinions matter at work (Gallup)
- Employees who feel heard are engaged: I've read that engagement increases by 17% when employees feel their opinion matters
But active listening is more than taking an annual survey. It's personal. It happens when a manager provides a point of feedback, for example, asking, "Next time three priority emails come through just as you're heading into a meeting, what would you want to do differently?"–and then actually listens, engaging with the response.
My expertise is in training for behavior change, more so than specific skills like active listening. It's helpful to be clear about terms, though, so I'll lay out the basics of active listening:
- Full attention: Eliminating distractions and being fully present.
- Paraphrasing: Reflecting back key points to confirm understanding and demonstrate genuine engagement.
- Open-ended questions: Invite deep, not just surface-level responses.
- Empathy: Acknowledging emotions and perspectives.
- Nonverbal observation: Reading the unspoken—body language, tone, etc.
When it comes to active listening within the feedback process, you can't lob a grenade of feedback, then run for cover. Giving feedback requires you to stick around, demonstrate you care, and have a conversation. Managers have to prove they "give a damn," according to Kim Scott in Radical Candor . Active listening proves it.
How your team can become active listeners
It's not enough to have a formal training session on the five factors of active listening. Knowing the information is great. But we're talking about behavior change.
Since it takes about 10 weeks to form a new habit, and learning happens by doing, you won't be shocked when I tell you that activity-based learning is what will kickstart the change.
Here are three ways to build active listening skills for your team over time:
1. Activity-based training
Short, bite-sized activities done in the flow of work. Something like: "Today, when a team member gives you their opinion on something, paraphrase their main point back to them to ensure you understand. Listen for the answer."
This is a simple, tangible exercise anyone can do within their current work to practice and develop active listening skills. A series of activities like this, delivered to employees over the course of 10-12 weeks, provides the kind of practice that reinforces learning and cements it into habit. Use activities to deliver training right where learning happens: on the job.
2. Personalizing activities to each learner.
You can boost the effectiveness of activity-based training by personalizing activities for each learner—in my own business I've seen training completion rates increase by as much as 76%. We use AI and machine learning models to deliver the most relevant activities to each person, accounting for personality, role, and previous training. Admittedly, without a software solution, this won't be feasible for most L&D teams. If you want to try manually, it's best to take a role-based approach rather than fully personalized.
3. Measurement: How effective is my training?
Tracking L&D metrics is both crucial and difficult. To get clearer results, use a holdout group, like the A/B testing used in clinical trials. If the initiative is about active listening, most people can receive the personalized activities, but a small holdout group would get the activities at random (non-personalized). Measuring the performance of each group in other areas (engagement, retention, etc.) will directly show the effectiveness of your training, proving the ROI of your L&D initiatives.
Summary
When feedback improves in the workplace, so will engagement and retention. Active listening is a key component of great feedback, and it can be learned over time.
Learning isn't just about getting information in your head—it's about behavior change. An activity-based approach drives behavior change over time. It can be made most effective, and most enjoyable for learners, if these activities are tailored to each person. Finally, the results are what really matter. You should be able to see them on paper and in the workplace.
Image credit: Pongtep Chithan